Hurricane Irma Strikes Florida

After battering Cuba and several Caribbean islands for most of a week as it crept slowly northwestward, Hurricane Irma turned north into Florida on September 10, 2017. Heavy rain and hurricane-force winds battered both the east and west coasts of southern Florida, even though the eye of the monstrous storm made landfall in the southwestern part of the state. Seas were rising with storm surges as far north as Charleston, South Carolina. Hurricane Irma made its first U.S. landfall on Cudjoe Key, Florida, about 30 miles east of Key West, around 9 a.m. on September 10. The storm was rated as a category 4, with sustained winds of 130 miles per hour at the time. It made its second landfall at Marco Island around 3:30 p.m. with similarly potent winds. At 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the National Hurricane Center reported that Irma was over Naples, Florida, bringing sustained win...